John Berger
"... that a way of seeing the world, which was ultimately determined by new attitudes to property and exchange, found its visual expression in the oil painting, and could not have found it in any other visual art form." (Chapt 5)
"Yet despite this, one has the impression that publicity images are continually passing us, like express trains on their way to some distant terminus." (Chapt 7)
Mirzeoff
"The mix of light and smoke combines to form what we might call a very modern form of beauty" (pg 224).
My final project for this classroom is named "To let Go" and was created to represent the black man and his burdens and how as time passes , he slowly let go of all the pain that has haunted him. My main inspiration for this art piece stemmed from Kehinde Wiley as I loved his expressive and colorful paintings. I wanted to replicate a similar style, having my mother and I use a mixture of blues, pinks and purples to make an aesthetic background. Only three colors were used as I wanted to keep the art piece minimalistic and easy to look at . I chose these colors as a way of representing space and the one being in the presence of the creator, being free and void of any conformity. Our bodies are only but a vessel but our energy and ideas are infinite. I also chose these colors because I love them and I wanted to use colors that I love to express my message. As in the left corner of the art piece, there is an image of me in black and white raising my hand to the sky, reaching as well as letting go. The reaching of the hand is a symbol of strength in its entirety, symbolizing the strength of letting go and the strength of maintaining hope through tough times. I feel as though in this day and age, people are doing a great job in voicing their problems and opinions on matters that hurt them but they fail to realize the amount of strength it takes for them to go through such trials in the first place. People often think about letting go as a painful experience but often forget the beauty of the experience, forgetting that to fly, you need to let go and to ascend means to never let worldly affairs weigh you down. The collage portion of the piece is to symbolize all the things that would need to be let go. Even something as simple as words can be something we should let go, and although thoughts and ideas seem weightless, they still hold a good amount of weight and pain on our body, mind and soul. I like to think that the black and white image of myself is a great contrast to the beautiful spacey colors of the background. Once you live long enough in the world and move past childhood, life begins to seem meaningless and thus we all seem bleak and black white in the eyes of many. People in today's world have lost their sense of purpose due to social media and push for a faster and instantaneous lifestyle, so through the eyes of some including myself sees the world as a bland place. So many people try to be like someone following trends without trying to be themselves. Just like in the John Berger readings, through this piece I wanted to showcase a different perspective of art, not reflecting on how the viewer may see the world but how the artist which I , myself views my own art showcasing my feelings and giving my thoughts on my own ideas. Like trains as mentioned by Berger, people will always find ways to pass you by , to only glance and look only for a second. If I were to make the most of those measly seconds, I would like to show myself in true form and give out what I can give into the world. I was never meant to be like anyone else but my own so I will always strive to be myself and be comfortable with myself. Furthermore, just like in the Mirzeoff quote, I wanted to bring a mixture of styles including Wendy Redstar’s annotation aesthetic as well as bring the abstract collage style of Wangeshi Mutu, sprinkled with a little Kehinde Wiley. From the beginning , I wanted to mimic the artwork of the artist we would learn about but make my own twist upon it . With this last and final project, I hope that I achieve my own piece of artwork that is very much inspired by those we have learned from but yet made into my own style of work with its own message.
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